When Chanaye Brown drives through the streets as a Milwaukee County Transit System bus driver, she keeps a lookout to make sure all the local children are safe, as a mom.
“That’s how I feel any time I’m out here driving a route and I see or hear something going on,” she told Inside Edition. “I just think about my kids and that’s what makes me do a lot of the things that I do.”
This is why she didn’t hesitate to run into a burning building when she heard the sounds of children trapped inside.
The day started out pretty normal for Brown.
She was driving her route just like she always does. But she noticed something she never saw before… flames spewing from an apartment building window.
Brown didn’t hesitate to pull her bus over and jump out so she could alert residents while someone on the bus called 911.
“I basically stopped the bus right there and hopped off the bus and ran up to the apartment building and started banging on the door, trying to ring the doorbells,” Brown said.
That’s when Brown heard something that terrified her and made her kick into mom-mode.
“I heard kids in there and I kind of panicked a little more,” she said. “So that’s what made me start getting a little bit louder and just yelling and getting everybody’s attention.”
Residents and children started to flee from building and didn’t even know there was a fire until they heard Brown.
But Brown still heard children inside, so she ran straight into the building and tried to extinguish some of the flames with a fire extinguisher.
But the extinguisher wasn’t working. Thankfully, firefighters quickly arrived to the scene to relieve Brown.
Lt. Michael Ball, the community relations director for the Milwaukee Fire Department, said tht Brown’s heroic reaction ensured that no one was hurt and that damage from the fire was minimized.
“Most people would have just called 911 and left it at that — which would have been fine. That’s what you’re supposed to do and that’s what we ask people to do. But instead, you chose to take further action,” Lt. Michael Ball of the Milwaukee Fire Department said according to Fox 6 Now.
The fire department ended up honoring Brown as “Honorary Fire Chief” for a day during a ceremony as part of Fire Prevention Week 2019.
But Brown doesn’t see herself as a hero. She was just following the Golden Rule.
“I just like to look at it like I was doing something that I would like somebody to do if it was my kids in that predicament,” Brown said.
Brown was even praised by her bosses at the Milwaukee Country Transit System.
“Each and every day, the dedicated men and women at MCTS keep our residents safe and our communities stronger and more secure,” said Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele. “Chanaye Brown went above and beyond her call of duty and looked past any potential danger she was likely to face when she walked up to that fire. She is a true hero among us, and this commendation is a small way that we can pay tribute for her commitment and dedication to all residents of Milwaukee County.”
Learn more about Brown’s act of heroism in the video below.
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